[OVERVIEW]
Ground
========
Mamoswine is a late-game cleaner for Ground teams due to its impressive Attack and access to priority in Ice Shard, giving it great value against Ice, Flying, Dragon, and opposing Ground teams. It also performs as a strong wallbreaker due to its nearly unresisted STAB combination. Mamoswine's typing, in combination with its ability Thick Fat, allows it to switch into Ice-type moves from Alolan Ninetales, Kyurem, Cloyster, or Arctozolt. Mamoswine, however, is fairly slow, so it must rely on Ice Shard to deal with faster foes. Its typing is horrible defensively, and its bulk is only average, which reduces the number of opportunities it gets to wallbreak. Lastly, Mamoswine's reliance on Choice Band to wallbreak effectively makes it easier to play around and take advantage of through scouting.
[SET]
name: Choice Band (Ground)
move 1: Icicle Crash / Icicle Spear
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Superpower / Knock Off
move 4: Ice Shard
item: Choice Band
ability: Thick Fat
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Icicle Crash deals with Grass-, Flying-, and Dragon-types, allowing Mamoswine to significantly damage walls such as Amoonguss, Celesteela, and Kommo-o. Icicle Spear can be considered instead to break the Substitutes of Kyurem and Galarian Moltres, but it is less consistent than Icicle Crash. Earthquake deals with Steel- and Water-types that resist Icicle Crash such as Aegislash and Toxapex. Superpower heavily dents Pokemon that are not bothered by the first two moves, such as Porygon2, Cloyster, Air Balloon Heatran, and Ferrothorn. Knock Off may be considered over Superpower to cripple physical walls such as Slowbro, Galarian Corsola, and Rotom-W. Ice Shard allows Mamoswine to revenge kill weakened threats such as Hydreigon, Galarian Moltres, and Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu. It also lets it clean up Flying and Dragon teams late-game when their walls have been sufficiently chipped. A Choice Band allows Mamoswine to OHKO walls such as Amoonguss, Zapdos, and Toxapex with the appropriate STAB move. An Adamant nature lets Ice Shard better pick off threats such as Thundurus-T, Galarian Moltres, and Tapu Bulu. Thick Fat allows Mamoswine to check SubRoost Kyurem and remove Ice-types such as Galarian Darmanitan in a pinch.
Excadrill is a good teammate to eliminate fast threats Mamoswine struggles with such as Zeraora, Volcarona, and Blacephalon when used on sand teams, or it can provide Rapid Spin support and clean late-game on weather-less teams once Mamoswine has chipped opposing walls. Gastrodon provides a Water immunity, can spread Toxic to wear down the opposing team, and can take special attacks aimed at Mamoswine. Alternatively, Seismitoad may be considered as the Water-immune partner, as it can check Azumarill, which usually poses a huge threat for Ground teams. Landorus-T provides Gravity support to allow Mamoswine to break through checks such as Rotom-W and Celesteela that can normally wall it. Swords Dance Garchomp can work alongside Mamoswine to break through their shared checks such as Slowbro and Kyurem when facing Psychic and Dragon teams. Nidoking deals with physical walls such as Slowbro and Ferrothorn that Mamoswine struggles with. Hippowdon can take physical attacks from Zeraora and Victini aimed at Mamoswine and can set sand and Stealth Rock to chip the opposing team further.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Ground
--------
A Jolly nature may be considered to outspeed and KO Tapu Bulu, offensive Heatran, and Adamant Rillaboom. Never-Melt Ice may be considered over Choice Band to switch moves; however, the drop in power prevents Mamoswine from 2HKOing Celesteela with Icicle Crash after two rounds of Stealth Rock damage, OHKOing Thundurus-T with Ice Shard, and OHKOing Amoonguss with Icicle Crash.
Checks and Counters
===================
Ground
--------
**Physically Defensive Walls**: Physically defensive Pokemon such as Slowbro and Galarian Corsola take minimal damage from Mamoswine's attacks and threaten it with Scald and Will-O-Wisp, respectively.
**Revenge Killers**: Faster Pokemon like Tapu Lele, Terrakion, Urshifu-R, Choice Band Victini, and Zeraora outspeed Mamoswine, OHKO it , and do not fear Ice Shard.
**Rotom-W**: Rotom-W takes negligible damage from Mamoswine and can cripple it with Will-O-Wisp or OHKO it with Hydro Pump.
**Priority Moves**: Both Choice Band Azumarill's Aqua Jet and Scizor's Bullet Punch OHKO Mamoswine after Stealth Rock damage.
**Status**: Burn from Galarian Corsola, Spectrier, or Scald stops Mamoswine from dealing meaningful damage.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Neko, 542526]]
- Ground analysis by: [[Neko, 542526]]
- Quality checked by: [[felines, 290520], [[maroon, 305839]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [dex, 277988]]
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